Closing the investment gap for women founded businesses is essential. The data on investment into women-led businesses has long made uncomfortable reading. But the latest Investing in Women Code report shows both how far we’ve come – and how far there is still to go.
The numbers have been cited so often they have almost lost their power to shock. Yet the core statistic remains as important as ever: only 2p in every £1 of UK venture capital investment reaches businesses founded by all-female teams. At the same time, women-led businesses represent a significant and growing proportion of the UK’s SME community and research consistently shows that they deliver strong returns when given the chance to scale.
This is not a problem caused by a shortage of ambitious women or of viable businesses. It is a structural gap one that the UK’s policy and finance community has spent several years trying to address, with mixed but encouraging results.
This article looks at where that gap stands today, what is being done about it and what practical options are available to women business owners who are ready to grow. Plus how Alcea can help women-led businesses utilise technology to structure lean and efficient businesses and help them solve their daily scaling and growing pains with our dedicated coaching service.
What the latest data tells us about closing the investment gap for women
The sixth annual Investing in Women Code (IWC) report, published by the Department for Business and Trade in July 2026, provides the most comprehensive picture yet of how capital flows – or doesn’t – to women-led businesses in the UK.
The headline figure is a genuine step forward: in 2025, Code signatories directed 32% of their venture capital investment to businesses with at least one female founder, up from 27% in 2024. For the sixth consecutive year, IWC signatories outperformed the wider equity market, where the equivalent figure was just 15%.
All-female founding teams – historically the most underserved group – received 6% of total investment from IWC signatories in 2025, up from 4% in 2023 and three times the wider market rate of 2%.
These are meaningful improvements. They are also, as the report itself acknowledges, far from sufficient.
Why the investment and funding gap persists for female-founders
Understanding what drives the funding gap matters as much as measuring it and will directly impact our ability to achieve closing the investment gap for women. The original Rose Review, which led to the creation of the Investing in Women Code in 2019, identified access to finance as one of the most significant barriers facing women entrepreneurs – alongside a lack of networks and the absence of visible role models.
The 2026 IWC report Digit News adds a further finding that is worth paying attention to: diversity within investment firms themselves influences outcomes. Investment committees with a female majority directed 11% of their decisions to all-female founding teams, compared with 8% from majority-male committees. When women made up the majority of an investment team, 13% of investment committee decisions supported all-female founders – almost double the 7% from majority-male teams.
In other words, who sits around the table when investment decisions are made is not a peripheral concern. It is a direct driver of which businesses get funded.
This matters for women business owners because it affects the practical question of where to direct their fundraising energy – and what kind of support to look for.
AI adoption and investment access are connected
It is worth being clear about why closing the investment gap matters not because the ethical case needs reinforcing but because the economic argument is often underplayed. Closing the investment gap for women led businesses is important across the board.
The Rose Review estimated that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. The Investing in Women Code report places the potential contribution of investing in female and ethnic minority-led businesses at 13% added to the value of the UK equity market.
These figures do not exist in isolation from the AI story either. As we explored in our May 2026 article, women-led SMEs are among the earliest and most effective adopters of AI productivity tools – and that adoption is generating measurable time and cost savings. A business that runs efficiently, with lower operational overhead and better data on its performance, is a more fundable business. The two conversations – AI adoption and investment access – are connected.
Building a business that is ready to grow
Securing investment is only one milestone in a business’s journey. Long before many women-led businesses begin speaking to investors, they are dealing with the everyday challenges of growth – wearing multiple hats, making every decision themselves, managing increasing operational complexity and trying to find enough hours in the day to move the business forward. Closing the investment gap for women comes down to the daily operations as much as the systemic challenges of navigating structures not designed for women at all.
At Alcea, we work with women founders and leaders on exactly these challenges.
Our one-to-one coaching is designed to help ambitious business owners build stronger, more scalable businesses by solving practical operational problems rather than simply talking about strategy. Closing the investment gap for women is integral and we are here to support the step change we all need to see. Together we help leaders:
- Free up time by identifying repetitive processes that can be streamlined or automated
- Use technology, including AI, in practical ways that genuinely improve how work gets done
- Create efficient systems that reduce reliance on the founder doing everything themselves
- Strengthen governance, decision-making and business structure as teams grow
- Overcome the growing pains that often appear when a business expands from a handful of people to dozens of employees
- Prepare for future investment by building the operational maturity, processes and evidence that funders increasingly look for.
For many founders, the greatest challenge is not generating new ideas it is creating enough space to work on the business instead of being trapped in it every day. That’s where practical coaching, clear structure and better ways of working can make the biggest difference.
Whether your ambition is to secure investment, scale sustainably or simply build a business that gives you back more time, creating strong operational foundations is one of the most valuable investments you can make.
Our coaching isn’t about teaching women how to use AI. It’s about helping women build businesses that are easier to run, easier to scale and better prepared for the future. Sometimes that means introducing AI. Sometimes it means redesigning processes, improving governance or creating clearer ways of working. The goal is always the same: less operational pressure, more capacity to lead and a business that’s built for sustainable growth.
Practical next steps for women business owners
If you are at a stage where external funding is on the horizon or where you want to understand your options before that moment arrives three things are worth doing now.
→ Check the IWC signatory list: Map which funders are Investing in Women Code signatories before approaching them for debt or equity finance. The signatory list is published on the British Business Bank website and covers banks, angel networks, VC funds and CDFIs.
→ Monitor the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards: If your business falls into advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, or life sciences and you are at a late-stage start-up phase with ambitions to scale and raise investment within 12 to 24 months, the Women in Innovation Awards represent both a funding opportunity and access to a high-quality support network.
→ Use the British Business Bank Finance Finder: The British Business Bank’s Finance Finder tool allows business owners to search for funding by business stage, amount needed and type of finance. It takes ten minutes and provides a shortlist of options that match your specific circumstances.
Closing the investment gap for women: What schemes and initiatives are available
The landscape of support for women-led businesses has expanded significantly in recent years. Knowing what exists – and what each programme actually offers – is the first step to accessing it.
→ Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards: Offers grants of up to £75,000 plus 12 months of bespoke business coaching, networking and role-modelling opportunities for female founders and co-founders of UK SMEs at the late-stage start-up phase. The 2025/26 round targeted advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and life sciences. Since 2016, the programme has invested more than £11 million across 200 women-led businesses.
→ Investing in Women Code: A commitment by 290 financial institutions – including most major UK retail banks – to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance. Signatories publish annual data and adopt internal practices to support more inclusive investment. If you are seeking debt or equity finance, checking whether your prospective lender or investor is a signatory is a useful starting point.
→ British Business Bank Investor Pathways Capital: The British Business Bank’s £400 million programme launched in 2025 targets 50% of investment to female investors and supports first-time and emerging fund managers from diverse backgrounds. Its Microfunds segment has committed up to £90 million across ten new fund managers, 57% of whom are female GPs. This signals a deliberate effort to shift who controls capital, as well as who receives it.
→ Invest in Women Taskforce: A £100 million pledge from the British Business Bank, alongside an additional £30 million ‘Women Backing Women’ Fund of Funds, which has made its first investments into three female-led venture capital funds.
Alcea works with women-led SMEs to build the operational foundations that make businesses investment-ready – clear processes, strong data and well-documented ways of working. Closing the investment gap for women is a priority for us and we want to be part of the change for the good. If you are thinking about your next stage of growth, we would be glad to talk. Visit alceaconsulting.com or get in touch directly.